Put the carrot, onion, garlic and celery into the food processor and chop very finely using the pulse button so it doesn't go into total mush.

Fry this mixture in some spray olive oil in a non-stick sauce pan until it's gone a bit soft and mushy, then split it into 2 portions.

Put one portion into a large bowl, and keep one portion in the sauce pan, and add the tinned tomatoes, crumbled stock cube, sugar or Splenda, herbs, wine (if using) and a tomato tin of water. Bring to a gentle simmer, turn down and leave to cook very gently with a lid on while making the balls. You can add chilli to this as well if you like, or any other flavourings too.

To the veggie mixture in the bowl add the minced meat and the breadcrumbs, a pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. At this point you can add any other flavourings you want - herbs, chilli flakes - and mix really well using your hands. Shape into balls about the size of a walnut, and leave on a tray or plate until they're all made. I've no idea how many you'll get depends on how big your balls are!

Taste the sauce for seasoning and adjust if needed. I dryfry about a teaspoonful of the meat mixture as well to taste it to make sure it doesn't need any additional seasoning too.

Pour some spray olive oil into a non-stick frying pan, and fry the balls in batches until they're browned all over and then drop them gently into the tomato sauce (if the sauce has gone very thick, add a bit more water) Try not to stir them too much or they'll break up, but you want them all covered by the sauce. Cook them gently for about 20 minutes, or until your pasta or rice is cooked. They can also be transferred to an oven dish and baked for about 30 min in a preheated over (180C) Freezes really well too.

Serve over pasta and rice with grated fresh parmesan adding the points as necessary.